Natchitoches - The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame will open the doors to its gleaming new museum as an unprecedented highlight for the annual Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction celebration June 27-29. Among the 11-member class being inducted are basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal and Distinguished Service Award winner Bob Marshall, formerly of The Times-Picayune.

The grand opening of the $23 million museum will be held June 28, displaying for the first time state-of-the-art exhibits showcasing Louisiana's remarkable sports history and culture. The museum honors the Hall of Fame's 355 previously enshrined members plus the 2013 inductees. Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, a driving force behind the museum's completion, will welcome patrons and honored guests at the event.

The inductees will be enshrined June 29, at the Natchitoches Events Center during the 2013 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner and ceremony.

Shaquille O'Neal was a two-time SEC Player of the Year at LSU who still ranks high in the school's career statistics. He left after his junior year and was the overall No. 1 pick in the NBA draft by the Orlando Magic.The Times-Picayune archive

In addition to the four -time NBA champion O'Neal, women's tennis great Chanda Rubin, eight-time NFL Pro Bowl selection Kevin Mawae, LSU football passing king Tommy Hodson, nationally acclaimed jockey Ronald Ardoin, Grambling basketball legend and ABA star James Jones, former UNO and NBA player Ervin Johnson, former Newman coach the late Ed "Skeets" Tuohy and the late Anna Koll, a
remarkable all-around athlete from New Orleans in the 1920s and 1930s.

Also honored with enshrinement will be New Orleans businessman and
sportsman Milton Retif, recipient of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports
Leadership Award. Marshall, a Pulitzer Prize-winning outdoors writer of four decades with The Times-Picayune, will go
into the Hall as the 2013 winner of the Distinguished Service Award in
Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

Sponsorship opportunities that include ticket packages, golf entries, congratulatory advertisements and other benefits for the 2013 induction celebration are available. Individual tickets to the museum grand opening and the induction dinner and ceremony will go on sale May 13 through secure online transactions at LaSportsHall.com or by calling the Hall of Fame Foundation office at 318.238.4255.

The first-time autograph session for kids will be held from 10-11 a.m., June 29, at Northwestern State's Prather Coliseum. It will be free for children 5-18.

The Hall of Fame induction reception and silent auction begins that evening at 5 p.m. at the Natchitoches Events Center with the dinner and ceremony starting at 6.

The 2013 athletes and coaching inductees will raise the total of Hall of Fame members to 302 competitors honored since the first induction class - baseball's Mel Ott, world champion boxer Tony Canzoneri and LSU football great Gaynell Tinsley - were enshrined in 1959 after their election a year earlier.

Additionally, 52 journalists have previously received the Distinguished Service Award in sports journalism, along with 11 previous Dave Dixon Award winners. This year's 11 inductees will bring the total Hall of Fame membership to 364 in its 55 years of existence.

The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame includes nine members of the Basketball Hall of Fame, six of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, six Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 16 Pro Football Hall of Fame members, seven Women's Basketball Hall of Fame enshrines, 18 Olympic medalists (10 gold medal winners), 34 College Football Hall of Fame members, five National High School Hall of Fame enshrinees, jockeys with a combined 12 Triple Crown victories, six world boxing champions, four College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, three NBA Finals MVPs and two Super Bowl MVPs.

The induction celebration schedule was announced by the parent
organization of the Hall, the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, and
the Hall of Fame Foundation, led by CEO/President Lisa Babin, in
conjunction with the Louisiana State Museum system.

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